Nuclear power, page-13

Expansion of world's first fourth-generationnuclear power plant begins

Technology12:17, 29-Jul-2024

CGTN

A view of the world's firstfourth-generation nuclear power plant, the Shidaowan high temperaturegas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant, in Rongcheng County, WeihaiCity, east China's Shandong Province. /CMG

Expansion of the world's firstfourth-generation nuclear power plant, the Shidaowan high temperaturegas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant, began in east China's ShandongProvince on Sunday.

The project, for which China ownsfully independent intellectual property rights, is located in Rongcheng County,Weihai City. It is jointly developed by China Huaneng Group, TsinghuaUniversity and China National Nuclear Corporation.

Equipped with the world's firsthigh-temperature gas-cooled reactor, also known as the fourth-generation reactor,the plant went into commercial operation last December.

The first phase of the expansionproject is to install another domestically developed third-generationpressurized water reactor Hualong One, which will operate with the gas-cooledone, Zhang Aijun, vice president of the HTGR Nuclear Power Company, Ltd, toldChina Media Group (CMG).

"The first phase of theexpansion project includes two units of Hualong One, our domestically developedthird-generation nuclear reactors with independent intellectual propertyrights, each with a capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts," said Zhang, addingthat "upon completion, the plant is expected to generate 20 billionkilowatt-hours per year and increase heating supply area by 20 million squaremeters to benefit 600,000 local residents."

The construction site of the firstphase of the expansion project for HTGR nuclear power plant, in RongchengCounty, Weihai City, east China's Shandong Province, July 28, 2024. /CMG

The future expansion plan includesadding four more pressurized water reactors each with a capacity of over one millionkilowatts, according to Zhang.

Upon completion, the total installedcapacity of the power plant will exceed five million kilowatts, with an annualgeneration capacity of 35 billion kilowatt-hours, enough for the electricityconsumption of over 17 million three-member households for a year. This isequivalent to offsetting 11.5 million tonnes of standard coal consumption and27.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission on an annual basis, saidZhang.

"We will maximize the effect of the third-generation pressurized waterreactor and the fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactorintegrated at the big base, further enhance China's nuclear power equipmentmanufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance capabilities,continuously expand the scenarios of comprehensive utilization of nuclearenergy, and cultivate and develop new quality productive forces in nuclearpower," Zhang added.